Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Storm while approaching Ponce De Leon Inlet, FL

We were on our way from Grand Bahamas to Charleston and they forecast big storms in the Gulf Stream. My wife gets final call on what we do (unless I deem it to be a safety risk) - that's the agreement we have - so we left the stream and headed 65nm to FL. Well, a 1/2 mile short of the inlet (ranked as one of the toughest inlets on the east coast) this is what we saw. We called SeaTow, got some local knowledge as to how to navigate the inlet and where to anchor, and headed in. The wind and rain slammed us as we came through the inlet, topping out at about 45kts. We quickly turned and anchored off a buoy just inside the inlet and watched the lightning drop. At one point we thought we were grounded because our nose wasn't into the wind - and we figured that with 45kts of wind it should be. It turned out that the current was running at about 5-6kts and won over the wind, so we were mostly facing the current.

Messages In This Thread